China will exempt import duties on a wider list of "key technical equipment", in a further step to shift manufacturing to strategically important industries such as cleaner and higher-tech sectors in the world's second-largest economy.
The new 54-page product list drafted by the Ministry of Finance and the customs administration is longer than the existing 38-page list, adding new products from online water quality testing systems to tomato harvesting machines.
Third-generation nuclear power plant equipment, solar battery production lines and airport checking devices were among items added, according to a comparative reading of the new list, which is published on the ministry's website (www.mof.gov.cn), and the existing one.
The ministry did not elaborate on the value of the tax cut. The new list will come into effect on April 1.
Kathy Li, an analyst with ChinaVenture, an investment consulting firm, said the adjustment highlights the high-end equipment that China still lacks but is in urgent need of to grow key sectors of its economy.
"It's helpful for China to grow strategic sectors and to adjust its industrial structure," Li said.
In the wind power equipment sector, for instance, China said it would encourage imports of larger turbines designed for offshore wind farms as the conventional wind power equipment production sector gets increasingly crowded.
"It shows that China is ready to boost development of offshore wind farms in the future," Li said.
The government has vowed to boost imports of high-tech products as Beijing has repeatedly called for Washington and Brussels to relax curbs on high-tech exports to China.
Beijing has listed a dozen sectors, from nuclear power plants to high-speed trains and large offshore vessels, as backbones of China's vast manufacturing sector.
Ultra-high voltage power grid, large petrochemical facility, integrated circuit, advanced machine tools are also on the list.
To encourage manufacturing of these products, China is offering tax incentives to importers of "key components and units", but such steps have only achieved mixed results.
For instance, China encouraged imports of products to make wind power generation units in past years, and it quickly led to an over-supply of wind power products.
